Columbia Hosts Biot Conference

The Fourth Biot Conference on Poromechanics was held at Columbia University, home to Maurice A. Biot, for whom the conference is named. Professor Biot (left) taught, conducted research, and published many significant papers while at SEAS from 1937 to 1946. 

 

“Biot’s research laid the foundation of the theory of poroelasticity that describes the mechanical behavior of fluid-saturated porous media, such as rock and soil,” said Prof. Hoe I. Ling, who was co-chair of the conference, with Associate Professor Andrew W. Smyth and Professor Raimondo Betti. “That theory is now known as the Biot theory.” 

The international conference, held from June 8 to 10 in Lerner Hall, was attended by more than 200 participants. This was the first time that the School has hosted the Biot Conference; the first was held in Louvain, Belgium, in 1998, followed by conferences in Grenoble, France, and in Oklahoma.

Columbia’s Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics gained prominence as a center for modern applied mechanics. Many of the most outstanding previous-generation researchers were from abroad, including Biot, who was a professor at the University of Louvain prior to his appointment to the Engineering faculty in 1937. 

 

Biot worked closely with Prof. Raymond D. Mindlin and their friendship continued for many decades. Professors Bruno A. Boley and Frank DiMaggio, both senior members of the Department who knew and worked closely with Biot, have been introducing Biot’s work to young graduate students and researchers during the annual Biot Lecture held at Columbia since 2004.

Among the international experts delivering keynote lectures were: Prof. Zdenek P. Bazant of Northwestern University, speaking on Modeling of Creep and Hygrothermal Deformations of Concrete:  Intriguing Consequences of Nano-Porosity; Prof. James R. Rice  of Harvard University, speaking on Some Fluid-Solid Interactions in Earthquake and Glacier Dynamics, and Prof. Fumio Tatsuoka of Tokyo University of Science, Japan, speaking on Rate Effects on Elastic and Inelastic Stress-Strain Behaviours of Geomaterials Observed in Experiments.

Other speakers included Prof. Zhigang Suo of Harvard University, Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Prof. Jerry M. Harris and Prof. Ronaldo I. Borja of Stanford University, Prof. Shaul Sorek  of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and Prof. Stephen C. Cowin  of City College of the City University of New York.

In honor of the upcoming 80th birthday of Professor DiMaggio, the Second Frank DiMaggio Symposium was conducted as part of the conference. Prof. Victor Kaliakin of University of Delaware and Prof. Majid T. Manzari of George Washington University chaired the sessions in the DiMaggio Symposium.

The contributions of Vural Erbilgin, Chairman of ERG Construction Co., Ankara, Turkey, and Mustafa Sani Erbilgin made possible a reduced fee for the general participants and graduate students.